She was a fantastic singer-but don't forget it is august. News channels and programmes were struggling to fill. Not usually a problem for the BBC since they can always slot in/fill with sport, but friday they were given the gift of   music.  
Incidentally, BBC2's Newsnight also covered Aretha-but they led and came at it from her upbringing, values and human rights angles-which I don't believe was a controversial issue for the many millions of her fans and certainly not for a minimal audience late night current affairs TV show on a friday evening in mid summer.
Having said that-the Aretha TV special on saturday pm BBC was a fantastic TV opportunity.But why was it so short(30 mins?)...